Consumers and businesses face a growing tide of malicious software that threatens the stability and performance of their computing devices and the security of their data. Computer programmers with malicious motivations have created and continue to create viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and other programs (collectively known as “malware”) in an attempt to compromise computing devices. In an attempt to evade detection, malicious programmers may inject malware into or among legitimate programs.
Many security software companies attempt to combat malware by creating and deploying malware signatures (e.g., hash functions that uniquely identify malware) to their customers on a regular basis. However, performing signature-based security assessments may consume a significant amount of computing resources, particularly in the case of mobile computing devices, where network resources and other computational resources may be in limited supply. In addition, many computing systems, including mobile computing devices, may come with several pre-installed applications, placing a computational burden on both mobile computing devices and security servers that supply security assessments for applications installed on the mobile computing devices.
Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for optimizing scans of pre-installed applications.